Street View

Street View Car

When we first started Street View as an experimental project, we packed several
computers into the back of a 4-wheel drive, stuck cameras, lasers and a GPS
device on top, and drove around collecting our first imagery. Since Street View
was launched for five US cities in May 2007, we’ve expanded our 360-degree
panoramic views to include locations on all seven continents.

We then moved to a van for a brief period, before switching to a fleet of cars
that would allow us to scale the project throughout the US and around the
world. We went from a rack of computers to one small computer per car and then
set to work refining our camera system to capture higher-resolution panoramic
views.

After several iterations of the car and camera technology, the latest car has
15 lenses taking 360 degrees of photos. It also has motion sensors to track its
position, a hard drive to store data, a small computer running the system and
lasers to capture 3D data to determine distances within the Street View
imagery.

Street View Trike

While we’ve been able to visit some beautiful places around the world with the
Street View car, some of the most interesting and fun places aren’t accessible
by car. One day while mountain biking, Mechanical Engineer Dan Ratner realised
that he could combine his favourite hobby with Street View to explore new
places, and set to work building a bicycle-based camera system. As a result,
we’ve been able to take the Trike to parks and trails, university campuses and
even sports stadiums.

Street View Trolley

When a group of art-loving Googlers wanted to take Street View technology to
museums around the world, we needed to develop a system that could easily fit
through museum doorways and navigate around sculptures. We worked to fit all of
the equipment on an even smaller frame, a push-cart lovingly dubbed Trolley,
and gathered the imagery for you to explore in Google Maps.

Street View Snowmobile

Once we were able to take the Trike to all of these interesting places, we got
to thinking about where else we could go and had the idea of putting our Street
View equipment on a snowmobile. In typical Google fashion, we were able to put
this together over the course of a few weekends, using some 2 x 4s, duct tape
and extra hard drives wrapped in ski jackets to last through the freezing
conditions. Fortunately, the people at Whistler Blackcomb were just as
enthusiastic, so now you can explore Whistler in Street View.

Trekker

The Trekker enables Street View to feature more places around the world -
places no car, trike, trolley or snowmobile can access. This wearable backpack
is fitted with a camera system on top, and its portability enables us to gather
images while manoeuvering through tight, narrow spaces or in locations only
accessible on foot. The Trekker is operated by an Android device and consists
of 15 lenses angled in a different direction so the images can be stitched
together into 360-degree panoramic views. As the operator walks, photos are
taken roughly every 2.5 seconds. Our first collection using this camera
technology was taken along the rough, rocky terrain of Arizona’s Grand Canyon
and, like our other Street View platforms, the Trekker proudly features the
Google Maps logo.